Genome-wide characterization and expression analysis of cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channels (CNGCs) gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana L. and Helianthus annuus L. for drought stress

Cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channels ( CNGCs ) genes play an important role to tolerate the abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. The present study was designed to compare the molecular aspects of CNCG genes in Arabidopsis thaliana L. and Helianthus annuus L. using various computational tools. Through protein blast analysis, we identified nine CNGCs in H. annuus and subcellular locations indicated that these genes were unevenly distributed in various cellular components. The phylogenetic analysis of CNGCs genes was conducted among of A. thaliana , H. annuus , Gossypium hirsutum L., Brassica oleracea L. and Brassica rapa L. It was noted that in phylogenetic tree CNCG proteins of these crops were divided into four clads. Expression profiling of RNA-seq-data indicated that HanCNGC16 and HanCNGC15 play putative role under drought stress. The cis-regulatory analysis also identified several stress-responsive elements in HanCNGCs . The comparative genomics provided insights into the evolutionary history, duplication, divergence, gene gain and loss, species relationship, and structural diversity of CNGC in five species. These findings will not only provide widespread implications of CNGCs for their roles under drought stress in various crop species but also provided a reference study for the CNGC gene family in H. annuus .